Bnieuws 49/09 - Broaden your horizon (2015/16)

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INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

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Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 49 Issue 09 03 June 2016 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Daphne Bakker Nadine van den Berg Lotte Dijkstra Kseniya Otmakhova Editorial Advice Emily Parry

SPEAK 20

10TOPTIPS

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Plankton

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Invisible Panel-Action

Contributors Elsamuko@Flickr Jamal van Kastel Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Michael Tjia Cover Centaurusdreef, Overvecht

by Marije Peute see also p. 12 Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 13st of June 12.00 Bnieuws Volume 49 Issue 10 01 July 2016

CREATE 30

@home bij Marc Koehler

LEARN 06

On Border Conditions

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One Year on the Job

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Circularity in Practice

Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies Š All rights reserved.

Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

EXPLORE 10

Anthropology & the Built Environment

Editorial

BROADEN YOUR HORIZON

Where would you go if you could just pack up your things and leave? Would you leave your life behind and travel around the world? Visit places you have always wanted to see? Or would you rather stay close to home and try something new and exciting there instead? Would it change you and the way you look at things?

Change and new insights are basic necessities to expand our knowledge and gain experience. Even if we cannot literally broaden our horizon, there are plenty of things we can do to become the best version of ourselves. We can reflect, make new plans, dream, and look beyond the things we already know. With this Bnieuws we explore some of these possibilities to broaden our horizons.

The Studio Border Conditions & Territories is quite literally doing just that: finding the boundaries of what is humanly and architecturally possible in terms of building under extreme conditions on extreme locations. Closer to home we see a mash-up between the fields of anthropology and the built environment. In an interview with anthropologist Marije Peute it becomes clear that the combination of the two can lead to previously unattainable insights.

Broadening our horizon can also be done inside the Faculty itself. In the interview with dean Peter Russell we reflect on his first year on the job, and see what plans he has for the upcoming years. Furthermore, student association Stylos has developed the 10TOPTIPS for both students and teachers, to improve our abilities to learn and teach. Take them to heart, or take them home and put them up above your bed.

Students Kevin Snel and Roel Vogels went beyond the educational standard of listening to our teachers in a professional enivornment. They took Bnieuws and several other students on an ExploreLab workshop to visit architect Marc Koehler at home and see how the informal setting of his own house would give new insights.

Whether you are graduating or not, planning on travelling the world or staying close to Delft, there are plenty of possibilities to expand the world you already know.

Let’s start here.

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#Bnieuwd

Tentoonstelling / VERTICAL CITIES Van Dubai tot New York, van Moskou tot Shanghai: in de TU Delft Library staan meer dan 200 maquettes van de hoogste gebouwen ter wereld. Er worden ook maquettes getoond van gebouwen die nooit gerealiseerd zijn, zoals de Illinois Mile High van Frank Lloyd Wright.

Museum / MICROPIA Als je de wereld van dichtbij bekijkt, gaat er een nieuwe voor je open.

Micropia is het enige museum ter wereld waar de wereld van microorganismen zichtbaar wordt gemaakt.

TU Delft Library / van 09.05.16 - 09.07.16.

Micropia / Amsterdam / micropia.nl / €14,-

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Masterclass / THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY What is the social context regarding circular economies and how does it relate to design thinking? The third masterclass of the series ‘Complexity in Urban Area Development and the Power of Design’ will address the circular economy and the role of design in organisational forces at local urban levels.

Doen / DAG VAN DE ARCHITECTUUR Neem een kijkje binnen de veertig zelfbouwpanden in Amsterdam waar mensen de afgelopen jaren hun eigen huis hebben gebouwd.

SADC Schiphol / 10.06.16. / register via gebiedsontwikkeling@tudelft.nl

dagvandearchitectuuramsterdam.nl

Amsterdam / 18 &19.06.16. / €12,50 /

#Bnieuwd

To do / GLOBAL TALKS Annemarie Mink (IDE) will introduce the capability approach, developed by Amartya Send, that is widely used in global development studies. You will be challenged to think about ways to apply it in your research and about the value this approach might have for your own study.

Culture Centre / 09.06.16. / register via delftglobal@tudelft.nl

Exhibition / THE PROPHECY OF BEES In this exhibition, bee mortality is used as a metaphor for the fragility of nature. Through videos, sculptures, and installations artists reflect on the contradictions between nature, animals, and humans which leads to a better understanding of human beings.

Kunstfort Vijfhuizen / until 19.06.16. / kunstfort.nl / €3,50

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Dutch Biennale Pavilion / BLUE In Venice the Architecture Biennale 2016 has started. Dutch pavilion ‘Blue’ is dedicated towards the Architecture of the UN Peacekeeping Missions, matching the Biennale theme ‘Reporting from the Front’. The pavilion is curated by researcher Malkit Shoshan.

Be sure to visit!

Venice / 03.05.16 - 27.11.16. / labiennale.org

Round table discussion

ON BORDER CONDITIONS Words Daphne Bakker

Image Nasim Razavian

A studio with three Archiprix wins in their pocket: Max Rink in 2007/2008, Simone Pizzagalli in 2010/2011, and Filippo Maria Doria in 2013/2014. The studio Border Conditions, part of the Chair of Architecture & Public Building, has proven the value of its method in guiding students to achieve not just excellence, but internationally acknowledged design work through the generative power of mapping. Bnieuws got to the bottom of the studio’s approach in a round table discussion with coordinators Marc Schoonderbeek and Sang Lee, and graduate students Filippo Maria Doria, Nasim Razavian and Negar Sanaan Bensi.

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Can you describe the core elements within the studio?

Marc: The three procedural steps we introduce are: theoretical framing, spatial analysis through mapping, and experimentation in design. These steps have been carefully developed over the years.

Filippo: It is very open.

Marc:...but at the same time it is very strict. That is maybe the contradiction: you need to follow these steps in order to reach something, to come to an end.

and are involved in projects outside of the Faculty, such as exhibitions.

Why grow beyond the Faculty?

Marc: A desire to get engaged in other issues and larger contexts, plus trying out our ideas to work in practice. The studio Border Conditions came into existence through the desire to connect research and education.

How did the studio originate?

Marc: We started when the BSc/MSc structure was implemented, in 2002. The idea at that time called for a clear relationship between research and education, and that research results would be implemented in education. A merge with the Territories research group resulted in the programmes we have now: the research programme Borders & Territories and the design studio Border Conditions.

Sang: In the discussions leading up to the implementation of the programme, we discussed what would be relevant topics in architecture today.

It came out of the necessity for what we called ‘experimental architecture in socio-political contexts’.

These were the two main interests that we had: experimentation in architectural design, which was rather absent in the Faculty at the time, and the desire to engage in the more speculative, theoretical issue of socio-political contexts in architecture. In that sense we wanted to rigorously conflate theory and design.

When was this?

Marc: In 2010, quite recently. In general, I would state that the Border Conditions programme as such has now grown beyond the walls of academia. We pursue

Our staff and student makeup is internationally diverse. In that sense we have a particular interest in developing the kind of ideas and approaches that are also relevant to those who come from outside the

Netherlands. I think the research studio format works well in that regard. When I look at other faculties, especially in the US and Germany, the graduation studio usually is only for one semester. It is quite difficult to run a thesis research studio in such a short timeframe. You get to look at a theme for one half of a semester and then you have to finish the design work in the remaining time. That is the end of it. Our faculty’s thesis process works very well in the two-semester long sequence, because you can do some in-depth study of a theme and design. We should actually call it a ‘project-based research’, not necessarily a research studio.

What drew you, the graduates, to the studio?

Nasim: What drew me to the studio was that I was dealing with experimental design. This was very important to me. It also has a cross-disciplinary character to it, and to the outcomes too. I think that is super interesting. You learn to be critical to yourself and to the architectural discipline in general. You do not deal with pre-defined elements in architectural design and you define your own thing and develop it.

In a way. you are super free in what you want to do.

Is there a risk of having too much freedom?

Negar: No, there is a certain mentality to it.

Marc: I think a distinction should be made between a product-oriented studio and a process-oriented studio.

The studio Border Conditions is really about a precise process that you need to go through. You have a lot of latitude in formulating your own position within the overall framework of the studio and its themes. At the same time you need to accept the fact that you need to take certain steps within a predetermined process.

Sang: Not only that, the students’ desires to do certain designs need to be grounded somehow. Teachers play the role of a critic, asking difficult questions. The discussion needs to be grounded trends on more fundamental issues, apart from the fashionable trends.. It needs to step beyond the question ‘Is it an

interesting idea?’ Yes, any idea can be interesting, but can you actually make it concrete as an architectural proposition? We cannot take any pre-existing conventions for granted. You have to define the problematic in a way that is conducive to a creative process.

Negar: The whole process is geared towards being able to define the problematic.

Sang: We try to take the discussion beyond what may be ‘interesting’. The ‘what-if’ question is important, but at the same time you have to be able to describe the dependencies surrounding a given proposition.

When you say something is interesting, you should be able to qualify what is involved in making that interesting. I think these are important questions.

What we try to do is to discuss and critique the conditions surrounding an architectural proposition.

How is the cross-disciplinary approach reflected: in the staff or in the process?

Nasim: In the methods. The tutors ask you precise, smart questions, too. You have to think about the questions for a week and come back with something that responds to their inquiries. That is what I think is special about the studio, the specificity of the questions to the students, in accordance with the nature of their projects.

Filippo: It is a teaching method, which I think is the Socratic method: you only ask questions. It concerns the method itself. Through the defining of the problematic, you are urged to think about the way you are going to do that. So it is interesting, we are talking about method now, but the method is not different from the project itself. It can not be separated.

Theory, the research, the kind of questioning, they are all dependent on each other, occurring simultaneously.

Marc: That is one way of how we understand the idea of ‘the Border Condition’: the exploration of the limits

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of the discipline. The references that we use are not strictly architectural, but refer to a quite diverse palette. The research programme Borders & Territories addresses this: if one of the contemporary understandings in architecture is that the field has diversified and expanded enormously, we are ‘thus’ interested in how we can architecturalize certain things. How can we incorporate spatial or material conditions that have traditionally not been part of the architectural discipline? How can we make those conditions become part of an architectural discussion?

Was this aspect of exploring the limit present from the very beginning of the studio?

Marc: In education, this was present from the beginning. In research, we have managed only the last couple of years to build up a very solid PhD programme, with an influx of promising PhD candidates on a regular basis.

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Are the PhD students from the studio or from outside the Faculty?

Marc: Both. I think it would be an added value to a faculty in general, if you manage to keep or cultivate a select group of your master students to move to the PhD.

Sang: One of the issues we try to avoid as much as we can is the kind of research and education that is driven by ‘personalities’. We try to avoid producing ‘styles’, so to speak. If you look at our students work, to my own satisfaction, they are radically different from one another. This can be unsettling for many guest critics in our reviews, because to them it implies that the studio is inconsistent. But that is the whole point: you define the problem and approaches and the students pursue their interests. I think that is crucial in the learning process, that it is not about problem solving. I also say that education should not be driven by personalities because architecture is already incredibly driven by personalities. I do not think we should start cultivating the habit of personality fetish in academia.

Marc: Partly it is about cultivating authorship of students by taking them seriously and helping them develop their own language, their own way of working. Not to create another ‘cult of personality’, but to acknowledge forms of otherness, that can be internalized and conceptualized.

How does this attitude result in student work from the design studio Border Conditions?

Filippo: I think three concepts need to be made clear somehow: what is mapping, what is border, what is condition? How do they relate to each other? What we did for example in our studio: we selected certain areas of the city for analysis. These areas are normally not architectural projects, and they are not specific projects in the city. But they are eventually areas between two or more different orders. Basically, you have a superimposition of borders.

In that sense, you do not have authorship in those areas, making them very fertile for interpretation.

Exactly because there is no authorship.

This interpretation also means that each and everyone has its own take on a given area, but also the notion of border has a multiplicity of meanings. In the sense that a border can be a buffer zone, an inbetween condition of different orders within the city. These projects are normally situated in an urban context.

But a border can also be a disciplinary border, or a physical boundary, as literal as a wall. The poetic somehow, it comes from the multiplicity of interpretation that the notion of ‘border’ has. And somehow this thing is translated in the project when it happens. We used to do these analysis by means of mapping.

Marc: I think it is a nice description of this issue of spatial conditions. We are not necessarily only concerned with buildings. It is much more inclusive than that. Mapping is a useful technique to incorporate that sort of multiplicity and a certain level of complexity into analytical and spatial analysis. It is a proper tool to actually start capturing these multiplicities and complexities in the research phase.

In the graduation studio this spatial analysis starts to inform the architectural design. How do you research, how do you notate that into any kind of mapping system? Then the speculation is also the kind of open ended-ness of the graduation studio, how do you operationalize the spatial analysis into an architectural

< ‘Wall of Happiness’, graduation project Nasim Razavian, 2014

intervention proposal? The studio has been running for over a decade now, but I still think this openendedness almost guarantees its vividness. It is never a repetition of anything - each investigation is unique.

Filippo: It is like being cast away in the middle of an open sea. It is interesting, because at a certain point, I remember that certain people in my studio got very displaced, because you are never given directions.

This forces you to grow, because eventually you emerge and you find a direction. But no one will tell you. It can be a very uncomfortable environment, but one where things can grow.

Back to the notion of borders: how do you define borders?

Marc: There are so many different ways of defining a border that it is endless. Our attempt is to also cultivate this in order to bring in new interpretations or new understandings of what ‘a’ border is. It is not only a line that divides, it can be factual, metaphorical, and/or theoretical.

Filippo: In my opinion – as an Italian – [everyone laughs] it offered a broader view of this notion of context. At my former school in Italy, the idea of context was mainly morphological. You analyze the plan, there are solid and empty spaces and then the project is informed by the morphology of the city. In contrast, the studio Border Conditions makes you think of how broad the notion of space is. Context in a project, also in practical terms, can be the brief. It can be the economic condition of the city in which you are operating. It contributes to opening up your mind to certain things that can be useful at later stages of your career.

On Thursday, June 9th, the Border Conditions and Territories research group will hold its half-yearly research day, with presentations of ongoing and new PhD research. More information will follow soon on borderconditions.org

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Another view

ANTHROPOLOGY & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Words Michael Tjia

Images Marije Peute

Our faculty’s name – Architecture and the Built Environment – suggests a large domain, open to be inspired, informed and interrogated by outsiders. I sat down with Marije Peute, a recent anthropology graduate currently conducting field research for Mitros. This Utrecht-based housing cooperative has construction works scheduled for Overvecht’s most problematic apartments.

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“They’re situated alongside the highway, harbouring drug dealers and domestic disputes. Local police are driven mad and don’t even bother coming by anymore.”

Marije explains that Mitros is seeking out for ways to improve the reputation of these apartments, as well as their own. Realising that a simple questionnaire just wouldn’t do, they sought out for experts with a background in anthropology. “This kind of research is frequently being done,” she says. This qualitative research will form the base for new plans made by architects.

Mitros initially asked for practical solutions for their problems in Overvecht. Marije responds critically to this attitude: “These are matters which are too complex for a quick fix. Our task here is to observe and to communicate.” For the last two months, Marije has been paying weekly visits to ACA (an acronym for the streets Atlas-, Centaurus- and Apollodreef), conducting field research and spending an occasional night in a Mitros-apartment. From the outside, the gray slabs act as an anonymous fortress, fencing off outsiders from what’s happening inside. “We’re trying to get a grip on what’s actually going on around here—how it is to live in a ten-story flat.”

Generally, tenants are easy to connect with. People love to chat and share stories. After approaching people on the streets, she says she often gets invited inside—sometimes for a drink. Once inside the communal corridors, the appearance of the individual apartments are telling, and confirm the stories she hears. Early indicators, varying from Buddha statues and friendly truisms, to security stickers and non-smoking signs, give away a lot of information. “A pile of shoes kept outside belongs to non-Dutch tenants.

Abundant collections of decoration take time to aggregate, revealing people that have been living here for a while—sometimes since the beginning. Passive aggressive signs are likely to be placed by frequent complainers. And security warnings often indicate that a break-in has occurred.” Although a lot can be seen, non-visual cues such as

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sticky floors and doorknobs – or the smell of urine – can tell much more about the mood inside the apartments.

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These conditions really vary from flat to flat. One individual inhabitant can spoil a flat’s atmosphere easily, thanks to the high density, poor soundinsulation and communal entrances. And once this happens, these communal corridors attract disruptive behaviour from outside as well. Yet other people benefit from condensed living and consider themselves lucky with their neighbours. Marije hears plenty of stories of tenants looking out for each other, taking care of neighbourhood kids and helping the elderly out with tax-forms. “This couldn’t happen in a street of free-standing homes.”

“Some people really need to learn how to live in a flat,” she says, immediately pointing out the impossibility of such a claim. “It just isn’t for everyone.”

People with the lowest of incomes – a very diverse demography – are placed in social housing such as ACA. “Bottom-up initiatives, such as cooking clubs

and collective vegetable gardens, don’t solve anything. The individuals causing trouble won’t take part in such activities—what those people really need is professional guidance. For them, the solution lies with Mitros, not the community living here.” Despite its problems and reputation, Marije says she really enjoys the neighbourhood. “I would rather live here than in some of the other area’s I’ve been studying.

Despite the great reputation that they had, their homogeneity really bothered me. The diversity here is fantastic.”

With the fieldwork almost wrapped up this research will enter a next phase. A condensation of the experiences felt and stories heard will be used to create personas, a weblog and Jan Rothuizen-style drawings. These results aim to give Mitros, the commissioned architects and to some extent the tenants themselves a closer look at the people living in ACA. The urban anthropologists, as they’re refered to, seek to stay involved during the design process.

And as they already have had a voice in the selection of architects, this goal doesn’t seem unlikely. mitros.nl/projecten/apollo-centaurus-atlas-dreven

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Interview

ONE YEAR ON THE JOB Words Lotte Dijkstra & Kseniya Otmakhova

A little bit over a year ago Bnieuws published an interview with the then justappointed dean. In the mean time you have perhaps seen him walk through the corridors, heard a speech at the Christmas drinks organized by Stylos, or maybe you haven’t seen him yet. So what has he been up to? How are the plans from last year coming along? And what are his resolutions for the upcoming (academic) year? Let’s find out!

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When we spoke with you last year, you mentioned some plans. To name a few: you were still living in Aachen, but planning on moving to Rotterdam, you were going to learn Dutch, you were not scared of going down in the university rankings, and you wanted to make the dean’s office a place of creativity with open doors. How are those plans coming along?

I continue to have a 20% position in Aachen, which will probably last for a year or so, but I live in the city centre of Rotterdam now. And I love it. It’s an interesting city, much like where I studied in Halifax [ed. Canada]. It’s a port city, with that kind of dynamic, a bit of grittiness and positive chaos. It makes for an interesting urban environment.

As for my Dutch, ik kan veel begrijpen, maar praten is… And then I start speaking English or German. So, it needs work. But there’s just no time to do that.

We’re trying the method of speaking Dutch in the mornings and English in the afternoons, here in the dean’s office. For the most part I understand what is being said in Dutch.

Did you follow the TU Delft Dutch course?

No, I went to the Nuns of Vught, to Regina Coeli [ed. a language institute]. The fact of the matter is that the time demands on the dean’s office are such that the times of the courses in the summer never worked. So

I went to the Nuns in January and February and it was perfect. I may go back, in the fall, once I understand where the gaps are in my knowledge of Dutch. They’re very good at tailoring those kinds of things, to make sure you get to the maximum out of your language skills.

It’s kind of frustrating, it’s like being an architecture student again. The language course is structured so that you speak with three different people throughout the day and they talk to each other. If they notice that you’re progressing well, they turn up the heat. So you can’t win, you never get ahead. It doesn’t matter what you do, you’re going to be pushed. So you just have to resign yourself to this idea of ‘okay, it’s going to be exhausting, but at the end of the week I’m going to have made significant progress’. And it works. The environment is really helpful, because you’re with a bunch of other adults who all have that same goal: to learn a different language.

How about your feelings towards university rankings?

Well, we have gone down in the rankings. That was inevitable. But our position in the rankings, for the most part, won’t make a difference to what we’re doing. We’re not making decisions based on how we’re going to do in the rankings. I think that the rankings just reflect the qualities on what we’ve been

deciding on doing are being recognized in the world.

Our research continues to be top-class, and our academic excellence is there. And because Berkeley [ed. University of California] had more citations last year they passed us. But it’s not a Formula 1 race; there’s no end to this thing. So the position in the rankings is just a gaze as to how we are doing generally. I think we can ask, are we Top 10, Top 50, or are we Top 200, or are we even in the rankings?

Well, we are in the Top 10, and if we remain in that range it’s a sign that we’re doing things properly. Not only properly, but in an excellent way that’s being recognized in the world. The rankings are probably a pretty good indicator of quality, but that’s not why we do things. It’s just nice to have.

“IF YOU HAVE LONG TERM PROJECTS, YOU HAVE TO START THEM RIGHT NOW!”

And the final resolution, about wanting the dean’s office to have open doors?

Yes, well, that’s a difficult thing. I’ve underestimated this corridor. First of all, it’s a funny architectural thing, if you look at the carpet patterns on the floor, it’s kind of this strange zig-zag to get here. Then there is the fact that the corridor is associated with the student advisors. Most of the people that are sitting there have a problem. People that come back in here, don’t really want to go into that space, because that’s where people are with problems in their studies. It’s natural for them to be here associated with O&S and the other support staff, but it kind of makes the dean’s office across this hurdle of despair. I would like to find a way to bring people in, but I think I’m inclined to go out more into the Faculty.

For example Fruits of Study, those kinds of things?

Yes, Fruits of Study was successful. It probably could have been advertised better, there weren’t as many people, and a lot of people said afterwards ‘I didn’t know’ or: ‘I only heard about it today’. But for the people who were there I think it was interesting, there were tears and laughter. People could see that the dean has also gone through this trial of architectural education and experienced the same things that students experience today. That will probably never ever change, because of the nature of architectural study. The nature of having to expose yourself, with your deepest convictions of design, to a professor who may or may not have understood what you were presenting. That… that’s tough.

In terms of things that may or may not change: have you seen the Faculty change over the past year?

I don’t know if you can ask me that. If I was going to suggest there’s a change, it has to do with the fact that I think that a lot of people are now ready to move forward and move on. It has taken a year for me to understand what’s possible. I was reluctant to come in and lay out all these ideas without having any idea how the Faculty works and without having any idea whether or not those ideas were obtainable. But I think that people are ready now, to try something new, to pick up some new programmes.

I don’t know if anything has really changed, except that people are curious.

Are there already, in that sense, plans or projects in the making?

Yes. Part of that is what’s going to be in my inaugural lecture [Tuesday, June 24th], and I already introduced some of the ideas during the Town Hall meeting for employees [Tuesday, May 24th]. For a long time I’ve been talking about the three As. These are Automation, Africa, and Agility.

I’ll start with the last one: agility in education. It’s about how you teach, what you teach, when you teach it in the curriculum. It’s that we’ve been repeating from generation to generation how architectural

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education is carried out. On the one hand, that’s not a bad thing, because architecture has to do with long time frames, so we should be wary of fads. On the other hand, the expectations of us as architects nowadays are much different than 50 years ago.

Especially when it comes to communicating about our buildings, or the responsibility of our buildings for environmental impact, or even for the way people consume information nowadays. If we take that into our architectural education, we maybe need some different kinds of content, and we need different kinds of ways of getting through. Maybe a 2-hour lecture is not the best way, maybe 8 YouTube mini-videos of 10 minutes each is a better way to, nowadays, transfer information and knowledge.

And I don’t know if one or the other is better, but if we don’t experiment and then measure ourselves, we won’t know. So that’s what I want to do, use some science as to how we teach. And be rigorous, to not just say, ‘Well, I learned this way, so it must be the best way’.

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And what about the meaning of the second A, ‘Africa’?

In terms of Africa it is clear that that’s the place where we have the biggest potential to make a difference right now. We’re almost late, but not too late. There are already a lot of activities going on in this faculty in sub-Sahara Africa, in Ghana, in Ethiopia, in Mozambique, in South-Africa. So if we can channel all the activities, put them together in a package, we can create this kind of network of excellence among the schools of architecture and planning. Maybe we have something we can offer to schools that are interested in making the quality of their students and graduates better. Because if you look at Africa, you can see many countries coming out of an era of poverty, having had good governance the last ten to fifteen years. Those people want to invest their money in something that has longevity, usually buildings. If those buildings are made with very good architecture that is of high quality they will retain value. So actually we need more capacity and

excellence in design quality there.

Not that our architects should go build things there, but we may be able to help them create quality in their educational programmes. Africa is going to double in population by 2050. It’s going to be 43 million people a year being born there the next thirty years. That is an increase by the population of the Netherlands every six months! And all those people need houses, they need water, they need sewage systems, they need transportation systems, and they need resilient urban design.

To be perfectly clear I want to do that because we want to attract the best people here. There are 1.2 billion people in Africa, there are a lot of smart people there. Some of them want to do a PhD, so I want them to come to Delft. People that might come here from Addis Ababa and do a PhD (I believe we have two in our faculty right now), will go back to Ethiopia with a PhD from the TU Delft. They’re going to be put into positions of leadership and in the long term that is going to be good for this university, this faculty and the people over there.

It’s like planting trees and waiting 20 years for them to mature. When they’re mature you will end up with a lot of potential. There is a story about a French general, asking his groundskeeper to plant some trees tomorrow. The groundskeeper replied: ‘But the trees need 40 years to mature!’ So the general replied: ‘Then you’ll have to plant them today.’ If you have long term projects you have to start them right now.

Otherwise you’ll put it off forever.

And about the first point of our mission, automation: it is clear that computation, robotics, and self-driving cars are going to change our lives. They’re going to change our cities and they’re going to change our architecture. Up until now I have a feeling that we as architects and planners have been waiting for these things to come at us, as opposed to having visions on how things should be. I think we have to take a leadership role in the discussion on robotics in our society. Whether it’s self-driving cars, automatic kitchens, or automatic vacuum cleaners.

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“Probably the best sketch I’ve ever made.” Sketch by Peter Russell

What are you complimented or criticized for?

I don’t know if I should say that. I think that time is probably my most valuable commodity. I’ve addressed time in terms of attention to things. So depending on who you ask I know that some people might say ‘I’ve seen the dean’, because I walked in that corner of the building. Others who don’t come into this corridor here, or who don’t come to events like the Fruits of Study - well, we haven’t seen each other. There are other people that I constantly see, because they either work in this part of the building or they’re on their way to the Espresso Bar. There’s a heterogeneous connection with the dean, depending on where you are or where you sit.

For example, I haven’t taken a walk in OTB for

a couple of weeks, so I haven’t seen anyone there for a while.

Do you make an effort to do so?

Yes, but it’s difficult when I have a day full of meetings here at the office and I don’t really get to go away or even get a sandwich. I try do that myself, so I can at least walk through the model hall and see what’s going on. The Faculty is full of fascinating studies, fascinating things going on in the studios and I never get to see all of that. I could walk around the whole day, but then I wouldn’t get my job done. So time is probably the thing that I’m complimented and criticized for. I can only say that that’s a balance that has to be constantly worked on.

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A funny thing is that after the Fruits of Study lecture, someone came up to me and asked: ‘So, what does the dean do?’ Which is a pretty interesting question, because sometimes even I ask myself: ‘What do I do?’ The answer is: take responsibility.

Because at some point someone has to be answerable for what’s going on. Taking responsibility means being well-informed so that when the decisions have to be made, they can be made swiftly and properly and result in the right answer. That’s walking around for that outreach, sitting here with all of the groups. It’s important that I understand what the pressing issues of people are, and what the feedback is on how things are going here. All of that is just one continuum of trying to understand what’s happening in the Faculty on a daily basis and being able to communicate it when things come from the outside. Budgets or decisions or new ideas need to also go in a certain direction. You end up with dialogue that is happening on all sorts of levels and happens at different speeds depending on what the content is.

When asked what kind of questions they would like to ask the dean, most people in the hallways were wondering about the facilities or about the building, like the opening hours or the quality of the canteen. Is that part of your job?

Some of those things are. Speaking about the opening hours, we are doing a test. It costs us I think around € 7.000,- to open the Faculty for a weekend. We’re investing € 14.000,- to open the Faculty for two weekends, in order to see if people are going to use it and if it’s worth investing in. So we’re addressing this issue, but in way that’s trying to be smart about using our resources to understand if it actually is a solution to a problem.

A final question people would like to ask: were you specifically appointed dean to make the Faculty more international?

I know that I was appointed here because of my international background. I don’t think that I was appointed to make an English bachelor or to make the Faculty more international. Being the first non-Dutch dean meant that I brought experience of universities from Canada, the United States, Switzerland, and Germany. I’ve had a lot of experience in different academic cultures. Not coming from Delft or another Dutch institution allows me to question the system. That means decisions about the system we have here will be made based on merits of their own, not because that’s how we’ve always done it.

Did you miss the Town Hall Meeting? Check it out online: collegerama.tudelft.nl/Mediasite/Play/882d6b87ac6047b78357c10aff02965a1d

< AAA-strategy by Peter Russell. Image by Peter Russell & Bob Zwanink (Communications BK).

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FOR

Nifty!

10TOPTIPS Words Lotte Dijkstra

Flyer Stylos

Broaden your horizon by listening to some advice. What better way to learn and become better at your work? Stylos devised an instrument to help you do just that: 10TOPTIPS for teachers, and 10TOPTIPS for students. Because both perspectives matter if we want to improve our education together, argue Vita Teunissen (Stylos Commissioner Education Master) and Willie Vogel (Stylos Commissioner Education Bachelor).

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Vita: “I can just imagine a situation where a student is working on a final presentation, with the deadline in two weeks. The teacher comes in, makes a negative remark on the design, and the student will be agitated, since there are just two weeks left. In this case, I hope that this student is inspired by the tips and either understands where the teacher is coming from, or dares to ask. Willie: “Or another situation: moments where teachers declare that ‘this is the method of my bureau, so that’s how we will do it here’. Why is that your method? Can you explain to us how you came up with it, and what you’ve learned so far?” Both scenarios clarify the importance of good communication between teachers and students. The tips are a guideline to help us all do that, and to prevent indistinctness.

The project started out as the ‘10 Golden Tips for Teachers’, initiated by Bob Witjes (FSR Chairman 2014/2015) and Anne van der Meulen (Stylos Comissioner Education Master 2014/2015). Vita and Willie continued the project, and discussed it with many different parties: students, teachers, O&S, and Teacher of the Year Frits van Loon. They added the student perspective to the Tips. Vita: “It’s important to acknowledge each other’s points of view. We all work in an academic environment, in which we should engage in discussion.”

Willie: “Students and teachers can both learn from each other.” This is reflected in the tips for both teachers and students. Although some of the tips are the same for both parties, there are some particular differences as well. Vita: “We created small flyers, which students could fill in to give tips to teachers. Some of them literally said: LISTEN TO ME.” Willie: “The tips from the teachers were about communication too, but also pointed towards things like: ‘Enjoy your studies, live!’ In the end we all need to respect each others needs.”

When asked what they hope to achieve with the tips, Vita responds: “That people realise we can only enrich our education by working together. Only then can we make the beautiful things our faculty has to offer even better.” Willie: “That you don’t work against each other, but help each other. And that we can start a dialogue, perhaps with new TOPTIPS on other subjects in the future.”

KEEP

S!

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PLANKTON Net als de vorige is deze column geïnspireerd door een voorval in de trein. Kort geleden naderde ik mijn woonplaats, terwijl in de vierzits achter mij drie studenten herinneringen ophaalden aan hun middelbare schooltijd. Te oordelen naar hun gesprekken hadden ze vorig jaar eindexamen gedaan. Wat ik hoorde – en met mij de rest van de treinreizigers, want de jongelui spraken op hoog volume – was verbazingwekkend. Het drietal was onversneden verontwaardigd bij de herinnering aan één van hun leraren, die in de klas had gezegd dat zij (de leerlingen) nauwelijks boven het plankton uitkwamen en dat hijzelf (de leraar) slechts een fractie onder god zat. ‘Belachelijk, toch?’

En zo ging het nog even verder.

Wat ík belachelijk vond, was dat deze drie ex-leerlingen werkelijk geloofden wat ze zeiden over hun oude school. En dat ze niet begrepen dat iemand eens een grapje maakt. Je moet toch een enorm verneukcomplex hebben als je denkt dat je docent méént dat jij nauwelijks verschilt van een amoebe en hijzelf maar een pinkbreedte afstaat van Zeus. Hoe egoïstisch moet je zijn om tot díe conclusie te komen?

Eenzelfde humorloze, verontwaardigde en egoïstische sfeer proefde ik toen ik in de gang van Bouwkunde een poster zag waarop de hoogleraren van Architectuur de maat werd genomen. De een zou een aansteller zijn, de andere altijd afwezig, en weer een ander was op sterven na dood. In ieder geval werd de studentenpopulatie groot onrecht gedaan door deze opgeblazen, zelfbevlekkende charlatans.

De makers van de poster toonden de gezichten van de hoogleraren, maar niet die van zichzelf. En ze bleven anoniem. Zodoende waren ze welbeschouwd net zo onzichtbaar als… ja, als wat eigenlijk? Plankton?

Het vervelende van dit soort zure acties is dat de reacties even zuur en humorloos zijn.

Kijk maar naar deze column. Dat vind ik nog het ergste.

Pierijn van der Putt / Docent Architectuur

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Research Project

CIRCULARITY IN PRACTICE Words Lotte Dijkstra

Image Librera Amenta

Broadening your horizon is about gaining new insights. What better way to do so than joining forces with people from different academic and professional backgrounds? REPAiR is doing just that. The research project aims at finding concrete tools to realise circular economies in practice. Research leaders professor Arjan van Timmeren (Department of Urbanism, Chair of Environmental Technology & Design) and researcher Alexander Wandl (Urbanism) met up with Bnieuws to tell us about the research project, the ambitions, and much more.

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The research proposal for REPAiR is perhaps best explained by deconstructing the acronym itself: ‘REsource Management in Peri-urban Areas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism’. Arjan explains: “REPAiR is related to the circular economy, and the need to translate this notion into concrete tools and strategies to realise structurally improved or differently organized environments. It is a re-design.” Tools will be generated to help local and regional authorities to apply and support circularity in peri-urban areas. The project works with a consortium of 18 partners, and over sixty people, spread out over six locations in six countries in the European Union. Each location has its own challenges, providing the researchers the opportunity to explore many contextual settings and stages of transition towards circular environments at once. Alexander: “Amsterdam, Ghent, and Hamburg have established a functioning waste management system with elements of circular development. For example: glass, paper, and often also other fractions such as plastics are collected separately. But there is still potential for more resource efficiencies and circularity in the industrial sector, specifically in the building industry. Another potential comes from the shift from incinerating waste towards recycling.

Then we have Naples, which is in our opinion really an exceptional case. Here, due to influence of the mafia and the development over the last century, the whole territory became actually literally wasted. If you look at a recent US army report1 (they have a military base in the area), you see that the cancer rate is much higher, because the water is poisoned or polluted. A huge percentage of all the vegetables and food that grow in this area are not only consumed locally, but also exported. So in this case we are actually talking about a life threatening situation.

Finally we have Łódź (Poland) and Pécs (Hungary), which actually, on paper, are where we are in terms of policies, although landfill still is taking place. Since the 1990’s they

are also trying to cope with the problem that their cities are sprawling. This brings them problems with organizing the circularity.”

Peri-Urban Areas The specific focus and scale of the peri-urban was chosen on purpose, too. Arjan: “The urban context is essential of course. Cities have their own ‘metabolism’, but what a lot of people do not realize is that these urban flows mostly are processed or generated in either their fringes or outside the city.

There is a clear relation, or reciprocity, between the urban city and rural hinterland, with in between the peri-urban areas. These areas show a condensation of both problems and potentials. Most of the times it is here that waste is being managed or treated. This happens for example in water treatment plants or waste separation stations, but also in incineration facilities. At the same time these areas are really

flows is subject to the changeability of those flows.

So it requests a new kind of planning that addresses solutions to incorporate continuous change. The case of Naples is an interesting one here as well, as the city is a result of centuries of stratification processes.

Only rather recent developments added a layer that resulted in what are considered the wasted landscapes and droscapes. The question here is: how to further develop this latest layer in such a way that the wasted landscapes will be restored into collaborative, clean, and productive areas which add value?”

Process & Ambitions When Arjan and Alexander talk about the project and the project locations, you hear their enthusiasm about the subject and their eagerness to start the research, development, and designwork itself. Not surprising considering the fact that it took over a year to get the

“IT IS PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH, AND DESIGN, ALL IN ONE” fragmented, with all kinds of delicate functions ranging from residential buildings to food production.” Alexander: “Exactly, when you travel around a city and you realize that that is where we ‘hide’ all those things… At the same time a lot of people live here. Actually, the majority of the European citizens live in the outskirts of cities. And these areas were hardly or never in the focus of planning and design.”

Consequences & Questions on Circularity How is continuous circularity secured and what does this imply for aspects such as infrastructures, spatial quality and flexibility of such areas? How are spatial planning, urban, and regional design being adapted to make circularity happen? What does a circular landscape look like? These are questions at the core of REPAiR. Any project that tries to incorporate urban or societal

research proposal through the tendering process of the European Union. Arjan: “We had the research granted just before Christmas. But before we could share it with the world we first had to take all kinds of legal and procedural steps. Now everything is in place, we can really start the research.”

These numerous preparations have led to an ambitious four-year project. According to the research proposal the goal is ‘to create an innovative Geodesign Decision Support Environment (GDSE) that will be used to create integrated, place-based eco-innovative spatial development strategies promoting the use of waste as a resource’. Arjan: “It is about using data related to geographical locations.

The problem of circularity is that, at the moment, we try to achieve circularity by looking at the output side, the production of waste, or as we consider it: resources. The problems however regard the business case and are mostly on the missing demand side and,

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of course, on how to you match the two. You could simply say that every time you take up a resource and let it become waste, it lowers your business case. So what you try to do is to leave the resource close to the place with its highest value, and also to what we name its ‘mine’, which is mostly urban. This is where GIS comes in. If you know how and where to locate all the resources and potential matches, you can also support making the right decisions to really achieve business cases. These are mostly based on integrated concepts: ‘eco-systems services’.”

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Making Circularity Work Alexander: “And of course there are a lot of stakeholders involved. If you want to make circularity work, you have to create possibilities for synergy and cooperations. The idea of the tool is to add the spatial dimension to these facilitating synergies and cooperations. This geo-design approach is, simply speaking, nothing more than bringing together geographic science, design science, ICT science, and the people of the place. The key is to use design, our core profession, as a tool to make integrated strategies. Not to have one strategy for every city, but to provide stakeholders with a variety of solutions for different problems. We also want to show how solutions are interrelated to each other, so that the stakeholders can make better informed decisions.”

Arjan: “The notion of circularity is still far too often just a theoretical notion. To support its success, circularity needs to be embedded in spatial planning, while regulations will need to support and not limit cases. This can imply the need for so-called ‘freezones’, for example like they aim for in Almere. The project also is connected to parts of the education programme. We will run an elective course within the master programme of Urbanism.”

Alexander: “It also can be a graduation topic within the urban metabolism research group in the next graduation studio for Urbanism. And by the way, it is not only for urbanism students. We are trying to connect it seamlessly to the Geomatics master and

the Master of Management in the Built Environment.

It will learn students an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to spatial planning and design.” Arjan: “It relates strongly to both the existing and future field of practice.”

“REPAiR will be an open-source development, another aspect of what the legacy of the project should be,” adds Alexander. “It is not that we will make a finished product, a tool, that can be used for twenty years. The tool has different modules: an assessment tool, a decision support tool, a knowledge management tool, and a knowledge transfer module.

All these sub-elements form the process and software, and are going to be open source, meaning: they can be used as well as developed further afterwards. I think that is also proof of the legacy.”

Educational Prospects When asked to further specify the educational part of the project, the two researchers show that they have plenty of ideas and energy for that part, too. Arjan: “We will include advanced GIS skills and development.” Alexander: “I think what is important for students is that maybe they are overwhelmed by the complexity of the project, but graduation projects will only look at dedicated aspects. There are a lot of topics that can be brought together, starting with the spatial setting as a room in which students can actually have discussions among each other.”

Arjan: “And with practice. Because the case studies and the subject of circularity are at the forefront in real life. It is real time and connected to real projects.” Alexander: “It is practice, and research, and design, all in one.” Arjan: “I think it is a difficult story to tell, but still worth telling it.”

1

Latza Nadeau, B. (2013). Italy’s Traingle of Death: Naples

Residents Blame Child Cancer Rates On Mob Disposal Of Toxic Chemicals. Retrieved from: www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/21/italy-s-triangle-ofdeath-naples-residents-blame-child-cancer-rates-on-mobdisposal-of-toxic-chemicals.html.

Example of waste geographies in peri-urban areas. Image taken from REPAiR research proposal, figure 1.3a >

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Artifact

VOETNOOT Door Robert Nottrot

In de duistere leegte van oneindigheid de baarmoeder van lichamen die aan haar hemel verschijnen heeft de aarde in een mantel van damp zich door de kracht van zwaarte tot haar welzijn gebald, in de buurt van een ster om niet alleen te zijn.

Soms sturen de goden een signaal zwak misschien en alleen te herkennen met de grootst mogelijke gevoeligheid van het leven dat het horen wil man en vrouw in wording verwonderd over elkaar verliefd op hun verschillen zittend op het strand van Utopia.

Wat vluchtig was, ging vloeien wat stroomde, stolde steen vormde zich tot schoot waarin water stof kon vangen dat van sterren was neergedaald en met hulp van de goden en het vuur van de zon zich ontkiemde tot leven.

Een steen tussen de kiezels bruin als zon-gebrande huid de vorm van een kindervoetje warm gelijk mensenbloed komt dan in een hand terecht die de golflengte van de goden voelt de steen weegt en wentelt en meeneemt naar zijn domein.

Een eeuwigheid heeft het geduurd voor de tijd werd uitgevonden en levens zich manifesteerden in hun extreemste verscheidenheid vergeten wat hun oor-(ei-, oer-)sprong was zelfgenoegzaam, egocentrisch wentelend in weelde en ellende blind voor het wonder dat zij deelden.

Op een plekje in de zon dag in dag uit in zicht zendt dan deze steen het woord over het wonder van het leven door vuur, aarde, lucht en water gemaakt om in de hand te nemen als het voetje van een kind warm, zacht en gewichtig.

Ik zou graag Dick van Gameren willen nomineren voor de volgende Artifact.

< Vuursteen uit Griekenland, 150x65x60 mm

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Workshop

@HOME BIJ MARC KOEHLER Tekst & Beeld Kseniya Otmakhova

Architecten worden herkend aan hun gebouw. Toch wordt er maar zelden gesproken over architecten en hun huis. Studenten Kevin Snel en Roel Vogels van Explore Lab wilden de rollen tussen professionals en studenten eens omdraaien door zelf bij een architect thuis op bezoek te gaan. Na een voorbespreking was het op 8 april dan zover. Roel, Kevin, een select gezelschap Bouwkunde studenten en Bnieuws gingen op bezoek bij Marc Koehler, een alumnus van onze faculteit.

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Bij Explore Lab krijgen afstudeerders de kans om naar eigen inzicht een workshop te organiseren. Kevin Snel en Roel Vogels hadden een fascinatie naar de wisselwerking tussen privé en publiek in het dagelijks leven van een architect. Wat schuilt er achter de formaliteit waarin wij de architect in de professionele wereld meemaken?

Hoe is de architect in zijn of haar thuisomgeving? En wat gebeurt er als je als student je vragen niet vanuit een collegebank stelt, maar een informeel gesprek aangaat bij de architect thuis? Kevin en Roel benaderden meerdere architecten voor deze workshop en gingen uiteindelijk de samenwerking aan met Marc Koehler, vooral bekend om zijn Superlofts [zie ook Bnieuws 08, 2013 - 2014].

Vijf andere studenten van zowel de bachelor als de master kregen de kans om mee te gaan op bezoek. Voor het zover was kwamen de studenten bij elkaar om er achter te komen wat zij uit deze ontmoeting met Marc wilden halen. De thuisomgeving, ‘het wonen’, zou het kader van het gesprek vormen. Wat voor visie heeft Marc Koehler op het wonen, het werken en de toekomst ervan? Toch was iedereen het ook met elkaar eens dat het gesprek open en informeel moest blijven, om tot dieper inzicht te komen in Marc’s denken en doen. Niet alleen als architect, maar bovenal als persoon.

Thuis bij Marc Koehler Marc ontving ons in zijn compacte woning in Amsterdam waar hij sinds zijn studententijd woont. Wij kregen een rondleiding door een systeem van schuifdeuren die de woonkamer en de andere functies simpel en mooi van elkaar scheiden. Eenmaal gesetteld op de bank in de woonkamer ging het voorstelrondje van start. Marc wilde graag weten wat ons als architectuurstudenten bezig hield en waar hij ons mee zou kunnen helpen door middel van dit gesprek. “Ik kan heel veel vertellen, maar wat is relevant voor jullie als architecten?”

Architect en idealen Wat de studenten bezighield is de positie van de architect en zijn persoonlijke idealen. Marc gelooft dat vanaf het eerste moment dat een architect een lijn op papier zet, hij zichzelf moet afvragen wat hij wil veranderen aan de plek waarvoor hij ontwerpt. Deze constant terugkerende vraag kan alleen beantwoord worden op basis van idealen. “Het is de essentiële, existentiële vraag die elke ontwerper, met name de architect, zichzelf zou moeten stellen. Alleen met idealen kun je de wereld veranderen en verandering is nodig. Meer dan ooit is er vraag naar

inspirerende politici, ondernemers, ingenieurs en ontwerpers die met innovatieve ideeën en slimme oplossingen de samenleving kunnen verleiden om op een duurzamere en verantwoorde manier te leven.”

Koehler onderscheidt sociale, zakelijke en esthetische idealen, samen vormen zij het ethisch kompas van de architect. Hoe dat in zijn werk terugkomt?

Koehlers sociale idealen worden op treffende wijze geïllustreerd door het Superlofts concept. In het kort zijn Superlofts collectieve woongebouwen met lofts

het nodig om een marketingstrategie te ontwikkelen en te investeren in productontwikkeling.”

Marc omschrijft zijn esthetische idealen aan de hand van wat hij zelf noemt ‘the power of smallness’. Deze benadering wordt gekenmerkt door een hoge mate van precisie en aandacht voor details. Door de wensen en leefstijl van een opdrachtgever intensief te bestuderen kan een ontwerp worden gemaakt dat tot op de milimeter functioneel en persoonlijk is. Op die manier krijgen architectonische elementen en details

“ALS ARCHITECT EN OPDRACHTGEVER MOET JE ELKAARS WERELD LEREN DELEN.” van zes meter hoog. Met behulp van innovatieve bouwsystemen zijn het casco en de inbouw gescheiden, waardoor bewoners zelf de indeling, grootte en het ontwerp van hun loft kunnen bepalen.

Architect en brand identity Het nieuwe woonconcept werd in het afgelopen decennium door MKA ontwikkeld. Met het Superloftsconcept wil Koehler tegemoet komen aan de wensen van kopers met een unieke lifestyle die op zoek zijn naar op maat gemaakte woningen of casco-klushuizen.

“Wij verzetten ons daarmee tegen het conformisme van de traditionele woningbouw.” Er wordt ook wel gesproken van CPO 2.0 (collectief particulier opdrachtgeverschap), omdat het concept de kostenvoordelen en vrijheid van zelfbouw combineert met de proceszekerheid, veiligheid en eenvoud van het kopen van een woning.

Daarnaast heeft Koehler voor het Superlofts-concept een sterke brand identity ontwikkeld, want ook de architect heeft een zakelijke visie nodig. “Misschien dat veel architecten en architectuurstudenten er niet dagelijks mee bezig zijn, maar als architect is het ook belangrijk om jezelf af te vragen wat voor ondernemer je wil zijn. Wat is de missie van het bureau? Met Superlofts willen we CPO 2.0 (collectief particulier opdrachtgeverschap) en MO (medeopdrachtgeverschap) op de kaart zetten. Daarvoor is

betekenis en dat geeft de esthetiek van een ontwerp extra waarde. “Natuurlijk heeft een architect ook persoonlijke esthetische waarden, zo vinden wij het belangrijk om de routing van een gebouw te koppelen aan het uitzicht en het licht. Vaak zie je bij ons spiralende routing, gerichte uitzichten en grote raampartijen die het licht en de wolkenhemel het gebouw binnenlaten.”

Architect en opdrachtgever Roel: “Dus jouw ideaal is het faciliteren van de idealen van de klant op een zodanige manier dat jouw eigen identiteit gewaarborgd blijft?” Marc: “Uiteindelijk is het doel ook dat mijn idealen verwezenlijkt worden, maar ik ga heel erg ver in het zoeken en aanpassen naar die klanten, omdat het heel moeilijk is om mensen te vinden die in jouw manier van denken meegaan. Nu komen mensen naar mij toe, maar toen ik net begon stond ik weken lang op bouwbeurzen huizen te verkopen, op zoek naar mensen waarmee ik een bepaalde klik zou hebben.” Het gaat voor Marc niet om het overtuigen en manipuleren, maar om het op zoek gaan naar raakvlakken in interesses tussen architect en klant.

Het samenwerken met een klant is volgens Marc geen manipulatieproces maar een educatieproces. Het is nu de tijd van open kaders die mensen zelf in kunnen vullen, begeleid en geadviseerd door de architect.

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Flexibel ingerichte woonkamer van Marc met achter de blauwe schuifpanelen de slaapkamer, badkamer en allerlei opbergruimtes.

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“Je neemt je klanten mee in het ontwerpproces, probeert hun blik op de architectuur te verbreden zodat zij meer gevoel krijgen voor wat zij willen en wat er mogelijk is.” Vandaag de dag is dit makkelijker dan ooit volgens Marc: “Geef mensen een account op Pinterest en een week later komen zij compleet opgeleid terug. Pinterest is de nieuwe architectuuropleiding. Quote!”

Het waarmaken van de idealen van de klant gebeurt bij MKA op verschillende manieren. “Wij merken dat maar 10-20% van de markt echt zelf wil ontwerpen, 60-70% wil heel graag in een Superloft wonen of op de projectlocatie; het maakt hen niet zoveel uit of ze die wel of niet helemaal zelf kunnen ontwerpen.”

Voor de tweede groep heeft Marc een aanpak ontwikkeld die vergelijkbaar is met het Nike ID concept. Hierbij kan de klant op een simpele wijze verschillende opties met elkaar combineren tot een uniek en persoonlijk ontwerp. De studenten vroegen zich af hoe ver je kan gaan met deze vrijheid zonder dat het een beperking wordt en hoe dit de rol van de architect verandert. Marc legt uit: “De keuzevrijheid moet gericht zijn op wezenlijke keuzes die echt een verschil gaan maken. Keuzes over de technische

details van een woning vinden mensen veel minder interessant dan kiezen hoe de ruimtelijke indeling van de woning eruit gaat zien. Voor de architect betekent het meer specialiseren op het aanbieden van ontwerptools en systemen.”

Architectuur vandaag en morgen De wereld van vandaag staat in de ban van de media en wordt overspoeld door zeeën aan informatie en betekenissen. De architectuurwereld heeft heel lang geprobeerd hier los van te staan. Nog maar tien jaar geleden was het een schande om als architect reclame te maken, in België is dit nog steeds verboden. In Marc’s woonkamer deelden de architect en de studenten de mening dat deze positie afbreuk doet aan architectuur. Marc: “Als je een missie hebt om een algemeen belang te vertegenwoordigen zou het bijna arrogant zijn om niet de moeite te nemen jouw boodschap aan het grote publiek kenbaar te maken.

Zeker als je weet dat de commerciële partijen met hun verhalen mensen gewoon manipuleren. Ik vind het helemaal niet erg om als architect eerst commercieel de markt op te gaan zoeken om vervolgens onze eigen agenda door te ontwikkelen. En dat is ons ook gelukt

met de Superlofts. Dat had je nooit kunnen doen door een ontwikkelaar van buitenaf proberen te overtuigen dat jij weet hoe mensen willen wonen.” Afsluitend sprak Marc de studenten met volgende woorden toe: “Architecten zijn systeemdenkers. We moeten verbindingen gaan zoeken met andere disciplines en kijken hoe wij daarin samenwerkingsverbanden kunnen ontwikkelen. Daar liggen de kansen om architectuur een nieuwe ruimte te bieden op de markt. Niet meer op de oude manier van wachten op de ontwikkelaar met een opdracht, want die gaat niet meer komen.”

Leerzame ervaring Terug in Delft blikken Kevin en Roel vol inspiratie terug. Roel: “Dit was een groot succes!” Kevin: “Een hele leerzame ervaring voor ons, maar ik denk dat Marc ook wat van ons heeft kunnen leren.” Een succesfactor is volgens Kevin het feit dat iedereen heel open het gesprek in ging. Het vormen van een kader vooraf is belangrijk, maar het is nog veel belangrijker om de architect de ruimte te geven zijn verhaal te delen. “Hierdoor is het een gesprek met ontzettend veel diepgang geworden,” aldus Roel.

Terwijl de studenten benieuwd waren naar zijn praktijk en levenservaring, vond Marc op zijn beurt het ontzettend interessant om te horen wat voor ideeën de studenten over architectuur hebben. Er vond een wisselwerking plaats tussen innovatie en ervaring. De workshop liet zien dat een informeel gesprek meer ruimte biedt voor deze wisselwerking dan de academische omgeving kan aanbieden. Hierin speelde de open houding van de studenten en Marc Koehler’s interesse in de studenten een cruciale rol.

Aanvankelijk was het doel van de workshop om studenten meer inzicht te geven in een architect, de ervaring liet zien dat de uitwisseling van gedachten voor beiden een grote aanwinst is. Professionele architecten en studenten zouden vaker met elkaar de informaliteit op moeten zoeken om als gelijken het gesprek met elkaar aan te gaan. Wellicht onder het genot van een drankje in de Bouwpub?

Roel en Kevin geven graag het estafettestokje door.

Wil jij door middel van dit concept een andere architect leren kennen? Laat het ons weten: bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

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MARIA LAGUNES CLAUDIA BASTA

INVISIBLE PANEL-ACTION Words Brigitte O’Regan & Charlotte Ros

Image Roberto Rocco

In answer to its all-male panel of key note speakers, just before the beginning of the Jane Jacobs Conference, on the 24th of May, six students walked in and placed twenty chairs on stage. Each chair contained a name of a female top expert on Jane Jacobs – local, international, high profile and lesser known names. These names represented but a small sample of the wealth of expertise available among the population of the world’s women on the topic. It was an action to honor Jane Jacobs and her struggle to be taken seriously as a professional and heard as a woman in her day. It was an action for all the professional women who continue to face disadvantage on the basis of implicit and explicit bias based on sex alone.

Reflection on the Jane Jacobs Invisible Panel-Action There’s something different about feminism now, the times they are a changing. More people at the TU Delft are speaking out on equity. The time is right. We learned that we just needed to get up and do something, so others could come forward and support us!

With the Invisible Panel-Action we spoke up, and said: “It’s not about, or not just about, representing women, but about acknowledging and inviting experts who are women. It’s about ending invisibility, negative discrimination and dismissal based on sex alone and calling for recognition, inclusion, and support for women’s work and ideas.”

Male and female students and colleagues, the organizers of the conference, and even the dean of the Faculty showed their acknowledgement and support.

They agreed with us! And many like the dean, Peter Russell, and the organizers of the conference, like Roberto Rocco, have committed to further action to address inclusion.

ANNA VOS

LILA LEONTIDOU

SONIA HIRT

Speak

Reasons for Success 1 – The Invisible Panel-Action was organized by a group of academics and students from different faculties and different cultural backgrounds. The initiative was a true group conception and a wonderful group action, with both men and women. Thanks to all who helped: you are heroes!

2 – Thee organizers of the Conference welcomed our action. The chairs remained on stage throughout the day. Sexism and feminism were openly discussed as topics by speakers. This led to an incredible introduction by Roberto Rocco, acknowledging the dynamics that hide female talent from view.

3 – Our list of experts within the Invisible Panel will be used to help organize a second conference on Jane Jacobs in May next year.

4 – Some leading staff at the Faculty, who also happen to be women, approached us with their cards. They explained that they have Jane Jacobs expertise, and would have loved to have spoken at the conference.

5 – At the Town Hall Meeting, dean Peter Russell praised our action and made a commitment to conscious inclusion of women. He explained and recognized, in front of everyone in the Oostserre, that

RACHEL STRUGLIA

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ADA COLAU

OLGA SEZNEVA

ROBERTA BRANDES GRATZ

SASKIA SASSEN

SHARON ZUKIN

ELINOR OSTROM

BETTY DRAKE MARGERY AUSTIN TURNER

Brigitte O’Regan and Charlotte Ros are both students at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, and co-founders of the TU Delft Feminists.

For reactions or comments, contact the editorial board: bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

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LYNNE C. MANZO

We couldn’t have expected a better result. We are very grateful to the organizers of the Conference, for welcoming our action and allowing us a platform. It’s hard to take the step towards equity. It often feels unnatural, because the normal way of doing things is just that, ‘normal’. Because bias is so engrained in our culture and often unintentional, we need to be gentle with each other and remind one another that it exists.

As the list of experts on the Invisible Panel proves, there is no lack of brilliant women in our field of architecture and the built environment. Let’s make sure they’re included, honored, and recognized in all our future panels, boards, and professorships.

TU Delft Feminists The TU Delft Feminists grew organically out of a dinner around the topic of Feminism two months ago.

We have quickly grown into a diverse group of academics, students, and professors across different faculties at the TU Delft. Get in touch with us, follow the discussions, meet like minds, join the debate, and get involved in new initiatves by joining the TU Delft Feminists online: facebook.com/ groups/880933582052940/

MARY ROWE

because of implicit and explicit bias women are excluded. He pointed out that we need to change pro-actively. Thank you Peter Russell!

ALICE SPARBERG ALIXIOU

NEXT EDITION 10 Summer is upon us. How will you spend your two months of relative freedom? Visit family and friends abroad, brush up on your Photoshop skills, sweat over an internship? Let’s check the variety of options next month!

MONIKA KURATH

HILLARY BALLON

JESSICA VAN GARSSE

Editors gezocht!

Ben je nieuwsgierig naar wat er allemaal gebeurt op BK? Vind je schrijven leuk? En ben je op zoek naar een part-time baan die je kan combineren met je studie? Dan zijn wij op zoek naar jou!

Bnieuws is op zoek naar gemotiveerde studenten die ons team willen komen versterken. GeĂŻnteresseerd? Stuur ons dan voor woensdag 15 juni 20.00 je CV met een pasfoto en een kort artikel van circa 500 woorden over wat jij zou willen veranderen op de faculteit.

Vragen? Stuur een mail of kom bij ons langs op woendag 08 juni 12.30 - 13.30.

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Bnieuws VOLUME 49 ISSUE 09